rainbow mountain, mt Tarawera & lake Rerewhakaaitu (Roto

[natedogg]

hey guys,

heading to Rotorua this weekend.

planning on doing

Route 24, 25 26 and 27 from Andy Cockroft 4WD North Island.

thats
Tarawera Falls
Mt Tarawera
Lake Rerewhakaaitu
Rainbow Mountain.

does anyone know the condition of these tracks/if we can still do them as the book is now a few years old.

or if anyone has some other suggestions im open to hear them?

Any help appreciated

Cheers

Nathan

[DJ]

Mt Tarawera

not open to general public. There is now a tour company run by Arawa Trust that will take passagers to the summit but its very very expensive ...

Lake Rerewhakaaitu

please dont drive in the water as the locals and the twig and cheep ( Forest and bird tree huggers ) people get very upset

Rainbow Mountain.

its fire season so would pay to check with forestry HQ at Rerewhakaaitu(?) or pm Scott as these are in his back yard??

[natedogg]

thanks DJ,

im not set up for deep water, so was just going to use the inland track at the lake. I assume they are ok with that?

we are staying in Ngongotaha actually. you dont know of any other track around there do you?

thanks again

Nathan

[DJ]

ngongotaha!! thats home ... hope you got your passport as we dont allow just anyone in Where are you from ? whats your truck and how capable is it ?

[natedogg]

hahaha I'm from Hamilton, but in Vegas for the weekend. hoping to do abit of driving round, exploring a few 4wd tracks

I have a 93 Terrano. with 31" Mud's on it. pretty standard in all other respects, but I've read they are quite capable and a good 1st 4wd truck.

[skid]

last time I spoke with Scott, Rainbow Mountain was off limits.

I think they put a barrier of some description in place.

[3VILC]

Went for a look up here this afternoon.. the tracks are mostly good with a few muddy patches..a couple of decent bogs which i wasnt too keen to venture into by myself hampered progress to keep going, but there were recent tyre tracks and broken vegetation so it must be drivable.. by the time i got round to the campground it was getting dark so didnt go back in from that end. woul make an awesome overnite/weekend trip staying in the campground before it gets too cold maybe some others would be interested, seems to be enough sidetracks to explore for hours with enough time. The tracks are pretty narrowly overgrown in places so your truck WILL get scratched